Well isn't it true how if you look at something from someone else's perspective it can seem completely different.

Take tonight for example. I wasn't planning on being responsible for my three boys, I wasn't planning on taking the older two to swimming club and I certainly wasn't planning on walking all three of them there in the freezing cold and after the littlest's bedtime.

Rather I was planning on being out somewhere else with my American pal* and some plastic boxes.

But circumstances change and my lovely husband missed the train he was planning on getting and the car was still in the garage and before we knew it we were walking and scooting up to the pool with the littlest decked out in his jammies, a warm coat and his new fleecy wellies.

I remember a special Friday night as a child when my mum was away at a guide camp and my dad suddenly had to visit a sick friend and my brother and I got bundled up in our pjs and coats and taken out into the exciting dark of the night. I remember my dad buying us crisps and chocolate bars on the way home and telling us in no uncertain terms that this "wouldn't happen every Friday night". It probably was only about half past eight in the evening and we were probably only out for an hour, but it seemed so special and so exciting and I still remember it to this day, so I am sure my littlest thoroughly enjoyed tonights change of plans and his night adventure scooting in the dark and working out how reflective the strips in our jackets are.

And the change in plans allowed one tradition to continue. Tonight's cake: Swedish Apple.




* I realise I haven't mentioned the return of the Americans on this journal until now. Not that I haven't meant to it is just that everytime I've spent with them I haven't taken any photos and I have written about something else. Our good friends who left our town for America some 6 years ago and then headed east before returning back, for now, returned in October. We are loving having them living so close again and for all that that entails, for already so many shared times, meals and cups of tea, films and games and walks to school and help with childcare. My boys are loving having their friends around and getting to know them all over again and my littlest is loving his new best pal. I know how they feel, it's a pretty special thing.